Keys Refugee Center Oddly Quiet

With Flow Of Rafters Diverted, Transit House Has Uncertain Future

KEY WEST — Like the others, Otilia Marina came to Stock Island on Saturday knowing there would be no more refugees.

Marina drove from Orlando with donated towels, sheets and underwear for Cuban rafters.

"I didn't know what else to do," said Marina, a physician who left Cuba in 1960. "I had to do something. This is my release. At least it's something."

The flow of immigrants to the Transit House for Cuban Refugees just north of Key West stopped this weekend for the first time since the center opened nearly two years ago. It served as a processing center for Cuban rafters arriving in Key West.

But the center's future is in limbo. On Saturday, authorities began detaining Cuban refugees and diverting them to Krome Detention Center in west Dade County and the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Gone was the frantic pace of the past few days when the Transit House processed hundreds of refugees a day. Yet the place was crowded with volunteers on Saturday who said the center seemed strange without the rafters.

"I suppose that's what a drug addict feels like when they take away the drugs," said Jose Castillo, the center's medical director.

"That's what charges us every day - when you see that first hug between a father and son; those first tears."

Some people came to the center with donations of food and clothing, certain the flow of refugees would pick up in a day or two when U.S. policy changed. Others hoped to get supplies wherever the rafters ended up.

The transit center's directors have offered to help the government in any way they can but have not received a response. No one is ready to shut down the center, a complex of small one-story buildings that includes a kitchen, infirmary, bunk beds for refugees and storage space for donated goods.

Juana Caceres left Naples at 3 a.m. with a van and trailer loaded with donated food, shampoo and shaving cream she collected from supermarkets.

"Even though they're not here, we're convinced they're going to be back," Caceres said as volunteers unloaded cans of pork and beans, vegetables and 100-pound sacks of rice.

"See now? I don't have any family that came on those boats," said Caceres, who left Cuba in 1971. "But I don't care. They're all my blood."

The food was put into storage in the center or trucked to nearby warehouses. Some volunteers sorted and folded clothes. The center has received so many donations that some items are being sent to other agencies.

Others treated the center almost like a shrine, videotaping the homemade boats on display and snapping pictures of the Cuban flag flying at half-staff in front of the center.

Dazy Perez stood in the shade of a tree behind the center. "Now I'm waiting," she said.

Perez came to the center a month ago to wait for her 30-year-old son and four brothers to escape from Cuba.

During that time, she helped process refugees. She wasn't sure what she would do now that rafters are no longer being brought to the center.

George Martin has worked at the center every weekend for the past three months. He has helped cook the first American meals of rice and beans for hundreds of refugees.

Martin, of Miami, took a week's vacation from his building inspection company to help at the center.